Round and round in circles - by Richard... Friday, January 27, 2012

Round and round in circles - by Richard... Friday, January 27, 2012

The Boy commits to making new regulations, if needed, to improve ship safety. But, oh woops! He hasn’t implemented the last lot yet, and his EU masters are getting rather cross.

And we also getting done in the ECJ. The EU commission is taking Britain (and Ireland) to the court because, it says, inadequate gas infrastructure is limiting competition. "The maximum interconnection capacity is not offered in the UK and Ireland as the pipeline connecting Northern Ireland and Ireland is not open to the market" the commission said.

This, strangely, is part of the Single Market, about which The Boy is so keen. If we had a halfway decent opposition, it could have rather a lot of fun at the Boy's expense.

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Going up - by Richard... Thursday, January 26, 2012

You know, I really dislike self-publicists. There is something not quite British about them. But I'm so tickled by getting number two slot, that I couldn't resist the temptation, especially as the hero of my book - "J B Priestley" – (if he can be called that) turned down a peerage.

Strangely, Ministry of Defeat is also doing moderately well, so I'm a happy bunny – although I promise I won't let that last. At least I'll never have the problem of deciding whether to turn down an honour.

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Madness begins at home - by Richard...

The man masquerading as our prime minister is in Davos, telling the "colleagues" that "Europe" must "stop throttling growth with excessive bureaucracy".

It this the same man who supports the Single Market, and its burgeoning regulations which support the CE marking? Is this the same man who, when questioned about the Costa Concordia, responded with a pledge to produce more regulations, if needed?

Indeed, is this the same man who is rolling out a massive amount of climate change legislation, and the same man who supports Basel III and the EU's programme of turning it into law?

And if it is the same man, what precisely is the "excessive bureaucracy" that he would like stopped? Does he not realise that, when it comes to "madness", this begins at home?

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Number four! - by Richard...

The Many, Not the Few is (briefly) number four on the Amazon best-selling list, for books about the Battle of Britain – not bad for a book that is not yet published! They've still got the cover wrong, though, and it's 435 pages, not 256 as advertised.

I am "reliably" informed by my publishers that the book will absolutely, definitely, without hesitation or deviation, be published on 17 February. I have actually received my first ration of author's copies, and – just from a production point of view – it looks an extremely handsome volume.

Advance orders are taken on Amazon and there is some talk of a major newspaper serialising the book. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

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What they would prefer us not to know - by Richard...

At the time, in January last year, we did it here, here, here, here, here and here, pointing out that the Queensland floods were largely a man-made disaster. We were joined by Booker on 15 January, one of the very few MSM journalists who pursued this issue.

Needless to say, the Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh was talking of "exceptional events", and the BBC happily chirped about the "freak of nature" – an attempt to reinforce the subliminal message that nothing could have been done, while the rest if the British MSM sat on its hands andsaid nothing of the involvement of the dam management and the dire effect of the green agenda.

But now, there seems to be a concerted attempt to cover up the role of the management of the Wivenhoe Dam. The top-level Commission of Inquiry is charged with "overlooking" crucial documents about the management of dam in the days before the inundation of Brisbane.

These documents, leaked by The Australian last year, indicate that on the crucial weekend of 8-9 January last year the dam's managers were operating under a low-level release strategy rather than a more urgent strategy to prevent flooding, contradicting evidence given to the inquiry.

The cover-up looked even more sinister it was revealed that a top civil servant was seconded to a senior new job advising premier Anna Bligh on the floods inquiry after he had provided the documents to the inquiry that suggested flood engineers were using the wrong strategy to operate Wivenhoe Dam.

However, new evidence how now emerged - an exchange of e-mails between two of Queensland's most senior water officials seems to confirm that the wrong strategy was being used to manage Wivenhoe Dam, and that water officials have been lying to the inquiry.

Some commentators now believe that the inquiry will be a whitewash, and are pinning their faith on a class action, which seeks damages on the basis of corporate and government negligence, even though the inquiry has been recalled to hear the new evidence.

But, while the Australian media is running with this issue, the British media is, of course, silent. Despite the broader implications, which would be of some considerable interest to British readers, the media would rather us not know how badly the Greens screwed up.

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They cannot have it both ways - by Richard...

Jean-Claude Mas, 72, founder of Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), has been arrested at the home of his partner in Six-Fours in the Var, south of France. He was taken into police custody just before 7am this morning. The house was being searched by investigators. A deputy chief executive was also arrested at his home.

So we have the likelihood of criminal charges being preferred against this (French) man, for the sale of substandard goods, purporting to conform with the highest of EU standards, under the aegis of the French government.

Since the products carried the CE marking, attesting that they had been produced in conformity with EU standards, underwritten by the French and British governments, in what way should the clinics which fitted them now be liable for replacing them?

Further, since the UK complied with EU law in this instance, and accepted the provenance of the CE marking – as it is obliged to do – in what way should the British taxpayer be liable for remedying for what, on the face of it, is a series of criminal acts, and a regulatory failure?

And herein lies an important point of principle. If the regulators, in whole or part, dictate the means by which a product should be considered marketable, and then underwrite a marking scheme that attests to quality and safety, with that comes responsibility when things go wrong.

They cannot have it both ways – dictating and monitoring standards, requiring a compulsory marking which attests to conformity, then walking away when their system fails. With power comes responsibility.